Exchange!

So Acia and I went down to red square to meet up with Eli. He had just picked his family up from the airport, and we decided that would be the best place to meet. She and I were wandering through the gardens nearby when I smiled at a guy about our age. He smiled and I smiled again. He came over to us and pulled out a keychain that says "Ahmed Tea London" with a picture of Big Ben on it and said, "Let's exchange something." I was sure I had misunderstood. "Huh?" "Do you have anything you can trade me for this key chain?" I laughed, "Seriously? Do you do this often?" "No. This is the first time." I started to dig through my bag, all the time exchanging glances with Acia and laughing.

Suddenly another boy approached us, this one holding a pen. "What will you give me for this pen?" he asked. We all exchanged names, and Acia and I continued to search through our bags to see if we had anything. "I'm afraid I don't have anything interesting," I said. I pulled out a couple of pens, a ticket to the hermitage (which they thought about taking, but were kind enough to refuse saying, "Wait, that was your first time? You have to keep this in memory of St. Petersburg."), an ad I hadn't thrown away yet.

The second boy tried to exchange one of my favorite pens for his less than mediocre pen, which I was not going for. Yes, I'm still cheap here in Russia--my favorite pen is my blue bic pen. A girl's got to have some standards after all! lol He then pulled out a business card that felt really cool. I told him I could give him one of my USC cards, and he took it. Then Acia was like, "Well. Give her the cool business card. She gave you one!" Not a bad deal.

The first guy was still trying to get rid of his key chain, and when we'd almost given up, I reached to the very bottom of a pocket and pulled out...a spoon! I had taken a spoon to eat yogurt with about one month ago that I had forgotten to take out of my bag. In the end, I ended up with a new (to me) key chain, and the guy got a used spoon. I think I came out on top of this deal--Ahmed is "the world's most exclusive tea" after all, or at least that's what the key chain says...